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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami has been invited by the Centre for Global Justice to visit the United States of America for a series of speeches and dialogues. He is to speak at the Washington National Cathedral and possibly Harvard and Virginia universities. He is also to attend a UN meeting in New York and he will hold a press conference there. His upcoming meeting with former US president Jimmy Carter is said to help the two countries to overcome their long term hostility.

Khatami has always been introduced to the world as the smiling and reformist face of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He is famous for his ‘dialogue of civilizations’, a term he first used in a speech to the UN general assembly in September 1998.

But reality is far from the general picture the western media draws of Mohammad Khatami. During the eight years of his presidency:

• more than 200 people were executed,• tenfold of women were sentenced to death by stoning,• 4 workers from Khatoon Abad (Babak Shahir) were killed for going on strike,• Students’ demonstration in commemoration of 9 July 2004 was brutally crushed on his orders,• The organised killings of dissidents famous as the ‘serial murders’ took place when he was in power.• Women had no rights and were constantly harassed. Any protest against discriminatory laws was answered by whips, arrests, torture, humiliation and imprisonment,• Many homosexuals were arrested and sentenced to long term imprisonment or execution,• Thousands of people were arrested and tortured for trying to defend their human rights against the Islamic regime,• Hundreds of workers’ strikes and demonstrations and students’ and women’s protests and nurses and teachers strikes were savagely attacked and suppressed,

And the list is endless…

Mohammed Khatami and the regime he was its president for eight years have done nothing but organising terror and murder and oppression. Khatami and all other leaders of the Islamic Republic are criminals and must be tried in the international courts for their crimes against humanity.

During the eight years of Khatami’s presidency, the persecution and murder of Iranian people continued non stop. As far as the Iranian people are concerned, inviting Khatami and providing him with platforms to speak and treating him as a respectable politician is condemned. Khatami has, doubtlessly incited violence against people in Iran and his government has helped Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, inviting him as a respectable person for civilized dialogue is despicable and unacceptable.

The Worker-communist Party of Iran is against giving the criminal leaders of the Islamic regime any opportunity to travel around the world and pretend that they are opening civilized dialogues, while at the same time they are murdering and torturing Iranian people and clearly supporting international Islamic terrorism.

We call upon all freedom lovers, individuals and international human rights bodies to make their protest heard and to demand Khatami’s arrest and international trial as a criminal.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Imposing Islamic family law in Britain will be disastrous for women and children in particular.

Islamic family law has been a pillar in the oppression of women in Islamist societies. Much of the struggle for women’s rights in countries like Iran has taken shape against it. Islamic family law will only increase violence, intimidation and discrimination against women and children here.

Also, because it is a prescription for inequality and discrimination and will create regressive and separate systems, standards and norms for ‘different’ people, it will increase marginalisation and the further ghetto-isation of so-called minority communities and youth. Moreover, by opening the way for further conquests by the reactionary political Islamic movement, it will in fact increase extremism – not the other way around.

Thankfully, the Union of Muslim Organisations informs us that they do not want Sharia law for criminal offences. So while for now we are not to expect public stonings in Trafalgar Square, the situation warrants serious attention and must receive as firm a response as demands for a now moot Sharia court in Canada.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

All we keep hearing after today's (albeit temporary) truce went into effect is who managed to win in the Israeli war on Lebanon.

Was it Israeli state or Hezbollahi terrorism they ask and ask and comment on.

One look at 13 day old baby Waad lying dead in her mother's clutches, though, is enough to tell them and anyone who cares to listen that no one can win in the war of terrorists but the terrorists themselves.

The rest of us are casualties in their race - having lost something so fundamental to our humanity when that lovely newborn baby - and her two brothers aged 7 and 9 who were also found clinging to their mother - died...

Monday, August 14, 2006

Have you seen the film on the outrageous execution of sweet 16 Atefeh by the Islamic Republic of Iran? If not, click here to see it.

Here's what I wrote when I first heard of her hanging two years ago...

No, she was not madMaryam NamaziePublished in WPI BriefingAugust 24, 2004

16 year old Atefeh Rajabi was publicly hanged in the city centre in Neka in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran on 15 August for "acts incompatible with chastity" after having been arrested a few months earlier for having sexual relations. She had no attorney at any stage of the farce.

During the 'trial', she expressed her outrage at the misogyny and injustice in society and 'judicial' system and even removed some of her clothing. The lower court 'judge' was so incensed by her protestations that he personally put the noose around her neck after his decision had been upheld by the 'Supreme Court'.

In media reports on her execution, Atefeh Rajabi has been deemed by some as 'mentally incompetent'.

I suppose it can be nothing but madness that drives a 16 year old to rage against the barbaric Islamic system.

It must be madness that drove Shahla Jahed to scream out in 'court' against the torture she had faced and her execution order.

It must be madness that drove Maryam Ayoubi to rage against her stoning order.

It must be madness that drove the two sisters who were stopped by the morality police to fight back and tear off the hejab of one of the agents.

It must be madness that brings hundreds of women to the streets on International Women's Day to burn the hejab.

It must be madness that every year, tens of thousands of women are arrested or fined for 'improper' veiling. Pure madness…

Reading that Atefeh was mad reminds me of the innumerable protesting women deemed mad for their century. But dear readers, there is one difference. It is not sweet 16 Atefah who is mad for her century but the regime that has brutally ended her life...

***

I discuss this and the recent stoning order of Ashraf Kalhori on this week's TV International, which is now broadcast on Tuesdays. Go to view it tomorrow.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

To human rights organizations and freedom lovers around the globeAbout the critical condition of a political prisoner in Iran

Ahmad Batebi is one of many political prisoners in Iran. He was arrested in 1999 when a student demonstration was brutally attacked by Iranian police forces.

His “crime” was holding up a bloody shirt belonging to one of his injured fellow students in front of the cameras and his photograph was soon published widely in many countries revealing the Islamic republic’s savage ways towards its opponents.

Ahmed Batebi is now in a critical situation, severely ill and on hunger strike. For more information on Batebi’s condition, please see the following letter from his wife Somaie Baiienat. Her letter is very detailed and expressive. Ahmad Batebi’s life is in danger and only an international urgent action can save his life. The Islamic regime of Iran must be forced by international pressure to release Ahmed Batebi.

As a woman who has spent eight years (from June 1982 till May 1990) in Islamic regime’s prisons experiencing horrific torture and harassments, I call on all of you, human rights groups and organizations and those who care for humanity and for freedom, to act quickly, write protest letters to Iranian authorities and demand Batebi’s and all political prisoners’ immediate release.

Please send your letters to the following addresses and send me a copy so I could let the Iranian people know of your support via Farsi publications.

2. Head of the JudiciaryAyatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Ministry of JusticeEmail: Please send emails via the feedback form on the Persian site of the website: http://www.iranjudiciary.org/contactus-feedback-fa.html (The text of the feedback form translates as: 1st line: name, 2nd line: email address, 3rd line: subject heading. Then enter your email into the text box.)

Letter from Ahmad Batebi's wife to the UN

Respected chairman of the Commission of the Human Rights of the UN:

This letter is being forwarded to you by the wife of Ahmad Batebi a student arrested during the student uprising of 1999 and condemned to the capital punishment by the Islamic Revolutionary Courts a sentence commuted to 15 years of imprisonment.

After serving six years of his sentence he fell ill and doctors appointed by the judiciary system judged his condition as severe and granted him a sick leave for a short time, during his short release we noted that his ailments included severe kidney, spinal and intestinal problems that were not treated properly and needed an urgent attention.

Physicians appointed by the court reported that his general condition could deteriorate if he was to be jailed again and urged the court to order his release since he could die or be crippled for life.

Therefore he was released from jail to seek proper medical attention.

On 27/7/2006 unknown armed persons conducted a house search and arrested Ahmad Batebi and drove him to an undisclosed location.

During his arrest my husband declared that he would go on a hunger strike immediately our lawyer tried to locate him and was unsuccessful in his attempts, and considering his physical conditions we are deeply worried about his health.

Needless to say that my husband's friend Mr. Akbar Mohammadi who also participated in the student uprising is being kept in a similar condition and died of hunger strike nine days later in Evin jail.

I am deeply concerned about the fact that my husband's actual mental and physical conditions could lead to the same fate.

Despite numerous attempts to contact him through the judiciary system and the Evin jail by means of letters and telephone calls I am still in doubt over the whereabouts of my husband and I fear him dead.

Following the creation of the human rights council in the United Nations which is giving us new hopes for exploring new avenues in human rights and has raised our expectations for getting a team of experts to come to Iran and evaluate the actual state of human rights which would enable us to expect to get the most basic right for my husband to get out of jail for his medical treatment.

Hoping to have attracted your attention to my desperate plea.

Best regardsSomaie Baiienat (wife of Ahmad Batebi a student in the jail since 1999)6/8/2006

Today 15/5/85 (6 August 2006) is the ninth day of the arrest and hunger strike of Ahmad Batebi.

As an independent physician who has been in charge of Ahmad Batebi's health outside of prison, I feel it necessary to note some points about his physical condition:

1- As a result of disk herniation (L4 & L5) due to a blow, Ahmad Batebi is in need of ongoing physiotherapy, medication and further investigation for an operation. If lack of treatment and hunger strike continue, he will face complete physical and sensory paralysis in the lower body.

2- High blood haemoglobin (17 g/dl), which is normally between 12-14 g/dl, will result in arteriosclerosis and an eventual heart attack.

3- High cholesterol, uric acid and triglyceride, which if not treated will irreparably damage his vital organs, namely kidneys, liver and heart.

4- His kidney haemorrhage may possibly be the result of high blood haemoglobin or kidney stone and needs further investigation.

5- Stomach bloating and duodenal ulcer, which can worsen and result in the puncturing of the stomach and/or duodenum, causing internal bleeding.

In light of the above, regarding Mr Ahmad Batebi’s many physical ailments, I find it necessary to warn all those responsible and the doctors inside the prison that if his hunger strike does not end and he is not transferred to outside medical care, he will meet the same unfortunate fate of Akbar Mohammadi.

The life of a human being is in danger; his situation needs addressing before another unfortunate incident arises.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Mansoor Ossanlou, the jailed president of Tehran’s bus workers’ union (the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs United Bus Company), was released at 3.30 pm local time today, 9th August, after spending over seven and a half months in prison. He was warmly greeted by his family and colleagues.

Ossanlou’s release comes following seven months of struggle without let up by Tehran’s bus workers and the massive international solidarity that took shape for his release over this period. He was jailed for organising the bus workers and defending their rights. His release is a clear victory for the workers and people in Iran.

In a statement released today, the Worker-communist Party of Iran congratulated Mansoor Ossanlou, his family, the bus workers and all trade unions, organisations and individuals who fought in the great campaign for his release. “Ossanlou was freed from prison by the bus workers and all those fantastic people in Iran and outside Iran who fought hard and put pressure on the Islamic Republic”, the statement said. It called for the unconditional release of all political prisoners in Iran, the recognition of the bus workers’ union and an end to the persecution of labour activists.

For more information, contact the International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

War, or murder, rather, has once again rendered it an urgent necessity for the humanist and freedom loving people of the world to rally around the banner of a third camp - the camp of freedom, equality, and humanity. The two poles of terrorism have shed the blood of innocent people and destroyed their lives in Iraq, Afghanistan, New York, Beslan, Madrid and London… and today in Lebanon and Palestine.

The current savage attacks of the Israeli government on the people of Lebanon, carried out with the overt support of the United States and Britain, and accompanied by the consensual silence of many Western governments, has left hundreds of people dead, thousands injured, and hundreds of thousands displaced and/or homeless. On the other side of the conflict stands Hezbollah, or political Islam at large, which, directly backed by the Islamic regime in Iran, envisages the annihilation of the State of Israel through expanding its terrorizing of the innocent citizens of Israel.

The Israeli government has officially declared that it is implementing the goals of the USA in the region. However, what we are in fact confronted with is a state that has never stopped, even for one single day, suppressing the most basic rights of the Palestinian people, and whose leaders must be brought to justice as war criminals, now posturing as the standard bearers of fighting terrorism! Today, the Israeli government is, indeed carrying out the exact same policies as the US is following in Iraq. And tomorrow it will be the Iranian people’s turn. So far the outcome of such policies has not only been the mass killing and total destruction of the lives of innocent people, but also the growth of Hamas and Hezbollah, and that of political Islam at large, the expansion of insecurity for the people of the region, increasing loss of rights for women, and increasing loss of civil rights for people in Palestine and Lebanon. Moreover, such circumstances have increasingly overshadowed the just demand for the establishment of an independent, secular Palestinian State on an equal footing with all other internationally recognized states. And, finally, such circumstances have paved the way for Hezbollah to let out increasingly louder howls in the streets of the West, to raise the posters of such murderers as Khomeini, Moqtada al-Sadr, and Hasan Nasrollah, and even to verbally assault “unveiled” women at rallies and demonstrations in the heart of Europe.

Civilized humanity must stand up and free the world from the claws of these two murderous camps of terror. The banner of the Third Camp must be raised and fly at full mast everywhere. The world is in urgent need of such a camp and its humane, radical policies against the other two. The Third Camp is the camp of hundreds of millions of people with a thirst for freedom and justice all over the globe who have no common interests with either of the other two camps of reaction and terror.

Join us, and take this initiative across the world.

We, the undersigned, demand the following:

 immediate cessation of war against the innocent people in Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel; conviction of the Israeli government as a war criminal; establishment and international recognition of an independent, equal Palestinian State; payment of compensation to the people of Lebanon and Palestine; condemnation of the governments of United States, Britain, and other state supporters of the State of Israel in the current war against innocent people; condemnation of the terrorist policies of Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and political Islam in its entirety.

We call on all progressive organizations, personalities, and individuals defending freedom and equality, human rights, secularism, women’s rights, and so on, to support the above-mentioned demands, and to join The Third Camp in order to oppose the other two, and to help bring about freedom and welfare for the people throughout the world.